| INTRO: | Am ↓ | - | Am ↓ | - |
| VERSE 1: | Am ↓ | G ↓ | Dm ↓ | F ↓ | | A possible child, / Dreaming through the longest night, / A possible smile, / Waking to a distant light, |
| Am ↓ | C ↓ | D ↓ | F ↓ | | A whole world of possibilities / Tell me what you see, / Where's that child going, tell me / Who's that child gonna be... |
| CHORUS: | Am ↓ | G ↓ | Dm ↓ | F ↓ | | In (Five thousand years) / (Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another) / (Five thousand years) / (Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another) |
| Am ↓ | C ↓ | D ↓ | F ↓ | | (Five thousand years) / (If we boldly set our sights, ) / (And journey through the coldest night) / (In five thousand years...) |
| Post-Chorus Tag: | Am ↓ | G ↓ | Dm ↓ | F ↓ | | ... / (Five thousand years...) |
| VERSE 2: | Am (strum) | G | Dm | F | | Build ourselves a brand new home, / Raise the glass domes high. / And in a century or three / Our children might look at the sky |
| Am | C | D | F | | And then at last they'd see / That distant yellow sun. / The cradle of humanity, / And all the things we might become... |
| CHORUS: | Am | G | Dm | F | | In (Five thousand years) / (Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another) / (Five thousand years) / (Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another) |
| Am | C | D | F | | (Five thousand years) / (If we sailed across the stars.) / (Unimaginably far) / (In five thousand years...) |
| GUITAR SOLO: | Am | G | Dm | F |
| Am | G | Dm | F |
| VERSE 3: | Am (arp) | G | Dm | F | | And maybe good folk still might die, / But maybe not, we gotta try / I don't quite know what shape we'd take / I don't quite know what world we'd make |
| Am | G | Dm | F | | I don't quite know how things might change / I don't quite know what rules we'd break / Our present selves might think it strange / But there's so many lives at stake... |
| VERSE 4: | Am (strum) | G | Dm | F | | Entropy is bearin' down / But we got tricks to stick around. / And if we live to see the day / That yellow fades to red then grey, |
| Am | C | D | F | | We'll take a moment, one by one / Turn to face the dying su-un / Bittersweetly wave goodbye-- / The journey's only just begun... |
| CHORUS: | Am ↓strum | G | Dm | F | | In (Five thousand years) / (Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another) / (Five million years) / (Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another) |
| Am | C | D | F | | (Five billion years) / (When all that we once knew is gone) / (We'll find a way to carry on) / (In five billion years...) |
| CHORUS: | Am ↓ | G ↓ | Dm ↓ | F ↓ | | (Five billion years) / (Whatcha want to do, whatcha want to see-ee) / (Five billion years) / (Where we wanna go...) |
| (alt. end) | Am ↓ | G ↓ | Dm ↓ | F ↓ | | (Who we wanna be?) / Where we wanna go... / Who we wanna be? |
| Dm | Dm | C | C |
| C | C | G | G |
| Dm | Dm | C | C |
| C | C | G | G |